On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia welcomed Ukraine’s written proposals on a potential peace deal but cautioned that there is still a long way to go to end the fighting.
Peskov said that he hasn’t seen anything too promising and that there are no signs of a breakthrough between the two sides. Ukraine put forward its proposal during talks in Turkey on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian proposal includes a pledge not to join NATO, but Kyiv wants security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5, which outlines the alliance’s mutual defense agreement. Ukraine wants these guarantees from several NATO countries, including the US, which is likely a non-starter for Russia.
Still, Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s leading negotiator, offered a more positive view of Ukraine’s proposal. “Yesterday, for the first time, the Ukrainian party announced, not only orally but also in written form, that it’s ready to fulfill a number of the most important conditions for building normal, and, hopefully, good-neighborly relations with Russia in the future,” he said.
The Russian negotiator said the conditions include Ukraine’s pledge not to join NATO, and not to develop nuclear weapons. He said Ukraine also agreed to an obligation that it could not conduct military exercises without the consent of its security guarantors, which Medinsky said must include Russia.
After Tuesday’s talks, Russia’s military said it was “drastically” reducing military operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. Ukrainian officials said Russia was still attacking the two cities on Wednesday, but other officials said Russian troops were repositioning.
Ukrainian Presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian troops were moving away from Kyiv for the second day in a row but added that he hadn’t seen a significant withdrawal from Chernihiv. “They have been really leaving Kyiv region this day, even for the second day in a row, in fact,” he said.
Russia’s military said Russian troops near Kyiv and Chernihiv are “regrouping” as Moscow is focusing on the eastern Donbas region. Last week, Russia said the “first stage” of its offensive was over, and it is now focusing on “liberating” the Donbas.
Any peace deal with the current Ukrainian regime would be considered by many in Russia, particular in the army, as betrayal.
According to The Saker, who monitors Russian media, that’s exactly what happened – a considerable opposition to any such agreement.
It is amazing how myths get created. Russia said NO SUCH THING,
After phase I, there are still consolidations to be made, but there has never been any mention of retreating to Donbas, “liberating” Donbas. It has been liberated,
It took Kyiv more than a werk to acknowledge that Rusdia controls Mariupol. The mayor that only. a day before claimed stellar defence admitted finally that he is not in Mariupol which is under Russian comtrol.
Taking care of snipers in hiding is a police ooeration not a military one.
We have no idea what second phase is. No indications are given.
If I am correct, Ukrainian oligarchs will abandon Zelenski, and his US-backed Kyiv strongmen. Those are now militarily defeated. Their batallions facing Russian forces in the East are either surrounded, asking for permission to surrender, or are as Azov batallion outright defeated.
Oligarchs have been stunned by the collective West at the snap of fingers and without judicial pricess — took their considerable wealth, real estate, businesses, yachts. Abramovich, the symbol of sucess, the symbol of looted Russian wealth, and in live with Western values, saw his adopted homeland, England, treat him as a pariah, his home confiscated, barely escaping withe his ine yacht to Turkey. And had it not been fir Russian interference, this could have ended differently.
Do not get me wrong. I am not worried about their kids going homeless. But there is a wanton disresgard for law that should have everyone worried.
So what is Abramovich doing at the negotiation on Russian side? Only reason — getting his fellow oligarchs in Ukraine warned. Most of their wealth is in the east — and Russia intends to prevail there.
They clearly need to secure themselves, and that coukd be done only by abandoning Zelenski. Abramovich may get a repreive from various prosecutions for past asset looting as a reward.
Clearly, Israel is most nervous. The meeting with Arab leaders in Negev is a sign of weakness.
– If phase 1 meant: “denazification”, ie. removal of the Azov Battalion from its strongholds in Mariupol and other places,
– phase 2 could mean: “demilitarization”, ie. getting the bulk of the Ukrainian armed forces to surrender and give up their heavy weapons.
I think denazification will never be completed because there is a whole range of different meanings from the hardcore neo-Nazi fighters to the average Bandera-supporters in Galicia. There is no way of getting Bandera ideology out of Ukraine.
Peskov’s view is correct. The request for “security guarantees” similar to Article 5 of the NATO Charter will be completely unacceptable to Russia – and the Ukrainians, or rather the US which is directing the “negotiations”, know it. It was just another stalling tactic. Medinsky’s description of the deal proposal is far too optimistic, and this is almost everyone’s assessment of it. He is under considerably criticism for his inept reporting of the negotiations.
Guy over at Moon of Alabama put the pieces together… Check this out:
Guy over at Moon of Alabama put the pieces together… Check this out:
Next step: clean up Donbas.
Russia should counter with Estonia and Latvia for Ukraine’s security guarantees. Just as stupid as Ukraine thinking the US can be involved. No US, and this shit isn’t happening in the first place.
Stupid Russians! They must enjoy banging their heads against a wall. I guess the last 8 years wasted on failed diplomacy with Minsk 1 and 2 are not enough. It’s obvious that if any agreement is reached Zelensky will simply be ordered by NATO to ignore it, like the last two. Russia needs to take over all of Ukraine and install a government.
“Russia needs to take over all of Ukraine and install a government.”
Need in one hand.
Sh*t in the other.
Let me know which hand gets full first.
If the US can install a government in Ukraine, which was part of Russia for centuries, then Russia can certainly install a government in Ukraine. Or they can waste more time on useless diplomacy.
Yes, and the outrage when the US did it should be replaced with urging of Russia to do the same?
At the end of the day, it’s the result that counts. US-style regime change has a tendency of going wrong. The Maidan coup led to civil war, just like the interference in Syria led to civil war.
Washington is good at starting wars, Putin is good at ending wars, as in Syria. We’ll have to see if he can pull it off in Ukraine. If he can bring peace to Ukraine, he will be universally acclaimed.
US regime change most certainly want wrong. It did not lead to civil war. A civil war is when both sides are fighting for control of a county. It lead to a revolutionary war after Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence and Kiev attacked them to prevent them from getting it, resulting in an estimated 14,000 dead ethnic Russians in Donbass. This is what happened during the American “civil war”.
US intervention in Ukraine since 2005 has mobilized Ukrainian nationalists against Russian native speakers. That has led to ethnic discord and civil war. As long as the Donbas is legally part of Ukraine, the rebellion has to be considered part of a civil war.
According to international law, Donetsk and Lugansk are independent. People there overwhelmingly voted to separate from Ukraine, just like Ukraine and Belarus voted to separate from the USSR in 1991. If these republics not independent, then Ukraine and Belarus don’t deserve independence either and should be made part of Russia as they were for 1000 years. Anyway, they are fighting for independence, whereas during the civil war in Russia (1917-1922) between the reds and whites it was fought for control of the country.
“According to international law, Donetsk and Lugansk are independent.”
Which international law?
The same international law that granted Ukraine and Belarus independence in 1991 when they voted to separate from the Soviet Union, even though both were a part of Russia and the USSR for over 100 years.
There was no outrage in the western world because it was covered up. Unless Russia installs a government Ukraine will continue to be a problem, since the Kiev government will continue to take orders from NATO. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks? Yet the stupid Russians continue to press on with useless diplomacy, when they have said earlier that Zelensky is a NATO puppet. Lavrov and others must not think that 8 years of failed diplomacy with the Minsk agreements are not enough. Maybe he enjoys banging his head against a wall.
“Unless Russia installs a government Ukraine will continue to be a problem”
And, to steal a phrase from another commenter here: That ain’t gonna happen.
I meant the outrage by people like you and me. You are absolutely correct that the coup was covered up to everyone who relies on the MSM. I’m just against installing governments under any circumstance.
Typically I am too, but that is the only way I see of solving the problem. But the foolish Russians continue to attempt diplomacy even though it is obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense that it is a waste of time.
I meant to say…Lavrov and others must not think that 8 years of failed diplomacy with the Minsk agreements are enough
Whichever hand you’re holding. Which is always full of bovine evacuation.
Whichever hand you’re holding. Which is always full of bovine evacuation.
So now your position is that the Russian armed forces are immune to reality, such that anything they “need” will just magically transpire?
Can’t say I find that surprising. So, do the communion host /wine actually become the body and blood of Vladimir Putin?
Asking that of an atheist is fairly stupid, again, no surprise there either.
Of course there was no progress. Ukraine still imagines it can win. The siren song of neocon hawks is still leading them onto those rocks.
I don’t believe that. Russia would welcome the opportunity to guarantee the peace together with the US.
However, to the US that is a non-starter. The Budapest Memorandum is a “memorandum”, ie. a piece of paper, and not an international treaty, because the US Senate refused to ratify it. The US will not sign any agreement obliging it to fight for Ukraine. Not in the past and not in the future.
Thus, it’s entirely up to Russia go guarantee the peace as in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Ukrainian proposals show that Selensky isn’t clear in the head.